Jules (Golden Streak Series Book 5) (9 page)

He must have believed her because he took a step back and shook himself until he was not so stiff.
She looked over as all the men left the room, and Ryland and her grandma even took a hasty step back.

“Both of you have a seat.”
She looked at Ryland and stood still as he changed his tone a little. “Please have a seat. We’re going to get this taken care of now or else.”

“What taken care of?” When
Ryland didn’t answer her, she sat down. Jules had already sat down and she scooted her chair as far from him as she could. She looked at Ryland again, wondering if Jules wanted any more ice.

“You two are mates.” She started to stand again and he barked at her to sit. “I’m not going to have this conversation again.”

“I don’t fucking care to hear it now. We might be mates of your kind, but not mine. I don’t want nor do I need a babysitter, and I will never be a stay at home woman who rears the kiddies while the man of the house goes out and brings home the fucking bacon. I don’t even like bacon.”

Ryland glanced at Jules
, then back at her. “You know that he’s marked you? And because he didn’t tell you, he is subject to being thrown from this streak.”

She looked at Jules when he stood up.
It wasn’t really fair that he got to pace when she couldn’t and started to say so to Ryland, when what he had said occurred to her. She glared at him.

“What do you mean
‘thrown from the streak’? You mean you’d toss out your own brother because he did something without your permission? Or mine, for Christ’s sake?” He nodded. “Why the fuck for? You think anyone gives a shit that he marked me? Do you think I do?”

“You don’t care that I bit you?” She looked at Jules.
“You’re my mate, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that no other male can—”

“
Responsibility? I’m not your responsibility any more than I’m his.” She pointed to the bird out the window feeding from the feeders. “And I’m a damned site more able to care for me than he is. Probably you, too. I’m not a child or a fool. And if you think either of those is true, then maybe you need another lesson today, this one from me.”

Jules rolled his neck when Ryland laughed.
He looked at her and glared. “I’m not in the habit of having someone needing me.” She snorted.

“I got news for
you…I don’t want or need you. I have a job to do, and if you’re going to be a pissy ass about it, I’d prefer that you’d stay the hell away from me. I have enough problems without you being another one.”

“They hurt you.” She nodded.
“Let me see. Let me see what they did to you. All of you. Please?”

“Why?
Why do you want to see me? That isn’t going to change my mind about being your mate.” She looked at Ryland. “I was sliced up really badly, but I survived without a mate. I lived because of me, not who I am to someone else.”

Ryland stood when she didn’t move.
Jules took a step back, and it took her a few seconds to realize that Ryland was pissed off, not at Jules but at her. When she lifted her chin at him, he smiled.

“You’ll not take him
as your mate because of this? You’d rather be alone than with him?” She nodded. “Then you leave me no choice. I have to banish him from the streak.”

“Because of me
?” He shrugged. “You fucking bastard. You can’t do that to your own brother. Why the fuck did you come into my life? I never asked for any of this.”

“No. I can see that.
And I can also see that you’d rather have things your own way rather than see if you can work these things out. Well, I can’t allow that.” She started to ask him why not when he braced his arms over his chest and continued. “He’s marked you, and even though you’ve not mated, you have bonded. So long as you are around him or him you, he’ll go crazy with wanting to be with you. Even to the point of killing others if you were to take a lover.”

As if to prove his point
, Jules growled low at them both and took a step toward her. “She’ll not be taking anyone but me to her bed.”

“A lover.
You think that someone would want to take me to their bed?” She laughed bitterly. “I’ll be lucky if I can get a doctor to examine me without puking on me, much less a man wanting to fuck me.” Jules growled again. “Oh, fucking grow up. This is what I look like.”

She ripped open her shirt and tore the bandage off that she’d only just put on.
She knew what that looked like because she’d had no choice but to see it. Stripping off her pants, she stood before them in her panties and bra, and when they both continued to look at her, she turned around to give them the full view.

“As I ran across the room
, he sliced at me. I thought he was using a knife, something so sharp that the pain was there long after I felt my skin open. And by a long time I mean seconds instead of an instant. When I fell to the floor, he tore at my legs, running his claws down my calves to the bone through the muscles there. The doctor told me I had fallen against a fence or a fire grate, and that I wasn’t cut at all but burned.” She turned around as she finished. “Then when the vampire flipped me over, I watched my friend being held to another monster’s mouth as he drank from him. When he was finished, he simply broke his neck. When I looked back at my body, he’d sliced my legs and arms. Tore them open like he was flaying a chicken breast from the bone. Even as I lay there bleeding from every part of my body, he told me that he wished he had more time to play. Wished that he had more of an art to killing like his master. That she had wanted me dead, but she said it was up to him how. Then he raked his claws across my belly, tearing it open until he—”

“That’s enough.
Please, no more.” She glared at Ryland and shook her head at him. “Please no—”

“You wanted this
story; well, you’re fucking going to hear it. As he sliced open my belly, he pulled out my intestines and licked them, telling me that he was going to wrap them around my body like a dress and style my hair with my blood. He said that he’d done it before and loved the way the red streaked through it, liked how it felt to use such a warm gel to make me the most beautiful corpse he’d ever seen. I was going to be his masterpiece. Then I stabbed him in the eye and killed him.” She picked up her shirt and held it in front of her, knowing it was too late to be modest now. “But I lived. I survived to be questioned daily by the police on what I had done to the man I was with. How I had managed to hurt myself so badly and kill an officer with nothing more than a knife. Where I had been when the supposed call had come in, and why would I tell everyone that I remembered nothing?” She looked at Jules when he spoke softly.

“I’m sorry
. I’m sorrier than I’ve ever been in all of my life for what I’ve done to you.” He looked at his brother. “I’ll be out first thing in the morning. I’ll…I’d like to say goodbye to the others.”

“Yes, that’s fine.
And I’m sorry, Jules.” He nodded at Ryland and left her standing in the kitchen with Ryland as he turned to speak to her. “I’m sorry as well, Lenny. You’ll not need to have any more contact with us unless you want it.”

Then he
, too, was gone. Lenny picked up her pants and pulled them on, then went to her room and looked around. She was finished as well. She was just beginning to pack her things to go back to Washington when her grandma told her someone was there to see her. She went to the front of the house and saw two men standing there on the outside of the threshold. She knew them both.

“So, you’ve finally decided to show yourself.”
Viktor nodded, and Peter smiled. “Well too fucking bad. I’m finished with this little town and I’m going back to my old life.”

She slammed the door in their faces and went back to packing.
She was going to be gone before the sun set if she had to walk the entire way.

Chapter 9

“
So you’re going to just let her walk out of your life.” Jules didn’t turn to see his sister-in-law. He finished throwing the piece he’d been working on all day. He didn’t bother answering Rayne. He’d learned from that mistake earlier today.

Rayne was a little blunter than Ally
, who had just left, and a great deal scarier. Em had been mean in that she’d destroyed the two pieces that he’d had nearly finished. When Bronwyn had come in second, he’d thought he was prepared for about anything, but he’d been wrong. Very wrong. She was one pissed off female.

He set the piece aside before getting up to get another ball of clay to throw.
Rayne was sitting on the only other chair in the room, and he had to walk around her twice to get what he needed. She finally stood up and blocked his way.

“I’m trying to work here.”
She looked around and smiled. “Please don’t do that. I have a show in a few more weeks and these pieces are paid for by a very big name.”

“Are you working to forget her
, or do you even care what happens to her when she gets back to Washington?” Jules had thought of nothing else, but he doubted that she’d believe him. The others hadn’t.

“She made her decision
, and so have I. She’ll be fine. Better probably than she would have been staying here.” He moved to the wheel again. “She’s a lot stronger than anyone ever gave her credit for.”

Every
time he blinked, he saw her body. Lush and full, scarred and marred, but simply the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She’d done more than survive. She’d gone against all odds and lived to tell about it, but she’d also done something more. She’d done what she had wanted, something even with all his money he had not been able to do for a long while.

He glanced at Rayne when she didn’t say anything.
“I talked to my agent this morning. I’m taking some time off and going to travel. I’ve…it’s been a long time since I’ve done something for me, and I’m going to take the time to smell the roses, as cliché as that sounds.”

“Why?” He shrugged at her question. “Don’t give me that shit.
What are you going to do and why? You never do anything without a plan that’s been tweaked fifty times over and planned for months…where you’re going and how long you’re going to be gone, to the second.”

“I’m going to have the studio redone and when I return
, I’m going to make art for me, not for what I think someone will buy. I have enough money now that I can do what I please. And if they don’t like it….” He didn’t finish, and she didn’t ask him to explain. “I don’t have a clue how long I’ll be gone, either.”

She pulled the chair over to where he
was working and sat in it so that he could see her if he looked up. She sat there for so long that he got into his zone and forgot she was there until he finished throwing. He looked at her briefly as he went to weigh up more clay balls.

“Ryland said you’d been asked to leave the streak.”
He didn’t answer because it wasn’t a question and even if it was, he didn’t want to answer it. “He said that you didn’t question it but seemed to welcome it.”

He hadn’t really
, but he could see where Ryland would think that. He hadn’t argued about him being able to stay, and knew for whatever reasons Ryland had, Jules had fucked up with Lenny and he deserved whatever came his way. As he centered the clay on the wheel, he looked up at Rayne.

“She’s gone.”
She nodded, knowing, he supposed, who he was talking about. “I hurt her. Worse than the wounds she got, I cut her just as deeply by not trusting her. But mostly because I saw her as no one else ever would.”

“Her wounds.”
Jules shook his head. “Ryland said you and him saw her body. That he was pretty sure that she’d never done that before. He said he’d have nightmares for years thinking about what she went through and endured.”

“I was talking about her heart.
I could have had it if I’d been less of a stubborn fool. I could have had it all but for being an idiot about what I wanted and what I was going to do for her.” He laughed as he sat back with mud all over him. “I was going to take care of her. I was going to do things for her…I was going to make her mine and then put her away until I felt like I needed her to come out and be with me. I would have caged her.”

“I doubt you would have done that to—
”

“I would have. Not with an actual cage but with chains
of restrictions. I didn’t want a mate and was going to not have one unless it suited me and my timeframe.” He leaned into the clay again, centering it with his upper body. “I was a fool.”

“You don’t have to be.”
He looked up just as he was wetting the clay again to pull up the shape he wanted. “You can still be with her. I’m sure that if you went to her and told her what you told me, she’d take you back.”

Jules pulled the clay up about two inches and then fanned it out to make the bowl in the middle.
He thought about what Rayne said, but knew that he didn’t want her out of pity; he wanted her because she wanted him.

“What the fuck are you waiting on
, Jules?” He looked up at her, startled by her abrupt change. “You want her to get killed? She will, you know. She’s not strong enough to go up against…. The evening she was hurt, did you know that Keith found the scene that she’d been working before she and her boss had gone to that house? That the computer system that he hacked at the station had all sorts of things on it, including pictures of the scene? That the things that vampire told her he was going to do to her were the same things that had been done to that family at the scene she’d been working?”

“She said she was working a crime scene
, and that’s all. She never said she remembered that.” Rayne shook her head. “What do you know? And how do you know it was the same scene?”

“There were several dead bodies
in the house. A mother, father, infant boy, and an older son and daughter, all of whom were killed that day. The killers had gutted them, all but the baby. Brock said he was also able to pull some records and found that the baby had had its neck broken. The mother had had her hair styled with her blood, and she’d been dressed in her guts.” Rayne started to pace. “The little girl, too, but the boy simply had his throat cut open. But the man…they’d taken their time with him. They had sliced open his legs and arms and then they….”

He waited
, not sure if he wanted to hear or not, but when she turned to him, Jules knew as surely as he was sitting there he didn’t want to know. But he had to. He had to know to better understand the horror that Lenny had gone through.

“His fingers were cut off
, as well as his toes. His dick and balls, too. Then the sick fuck spread them out on the floor in sort of a morbid kind of art. Adding his tongue and eyes to where his head might have been with the other body parts.” She turned to him. “She saw that. Cataloged it all down on a notebook that was found at the scene by the new owners. Do you know what they said when Em asked them for it? They told her that they could no longer live in their home because of what had been written there. And when Brock went back the next week to speak to them again, they were gone. Not even bothering to take their furniture or clothes.”

He stood up and washed his hands
, leaving the piece he’d been working on not even half finished. As he dried his hands, he looked at Rayne. She wasn’t smiling but looked as murderous as he’d ever seen her.

“Where is she?”
She crossed her arms over her chest like he’d seen her do a million times when dealing with a stupid customer at her shop. “I need to help her if she’ll let me, but I can’t do anything if I don’t know where to find her.”

“She’s not going to be happy with me.”
He didn’t say he didn’t care because he really did. “When you find her, what are you going to do first? If you say anything about taking care of her, I’m going to brain you.”

“I’m going to ask her if I can be a part of her life.
I’m going to beg her to give me a second, third, hell as many chances as I can get from her to show her how sorry I am and how much I admire her. I’m going to get down on my hands and knees to beg her to let me start over.” Rayne smiled at him. “I’m going to see if she’ll let me be her mate. Ask her to care for me and save me from my foolish self.”

“That’s a lot to ask a girl on the first round.
Perhaps you should just ask her to forgive you and be done with it.” She laughed when he shook his head. “So it’s going to be all or nothing with you, huh?”

“It’s the only way I can make sure she ever trusts me again.”
She nodded at him. “Will you help me?”

“She’s at your
mom’s house. She’s supposed to be stalling her until you get your act together and go over there and do what you should have done weeks ago…be a man.” He kissed her on the cheek, and then for spite hugged her to him tightly, knowing that his brother wasn’t going to like her smelling like another male.

“I’m going to find my mate and see if she’ll have me.” With that he picked up his keys and left the building.
He hoped that Rayne would lock up but really didn’t care. In a few weeks it would all be gone anyway if Lenny wouldn’t take him back.

~~~

Sandra was running out of ideas to keep her there. This last attempt at stalling was bordering on insane. Who cared what the back end of her pool house looked like? If asked, Sandra would be hard pressed to tell anyone what she’d even said about it. She looked up when Lenny cleared her throat.

“You did really well until this.” She tried to act like she
didn’t have any idea what she was talking about, but it wasn’t working if Lenny’s face was any indication. “Who talked you into this harebrained scheme? Ryland or Bronwyn?”

“All of them
, as a matter of fact.” She nodded toward the pool to have a chair. “I thought he’d come to his senses and come here for you. I guess I don’t know my son as well as I thought.”

“Perhaps
it’s me, not him. I didn’t exactly make it easy on him to want me.” Sandra doubted that. “I’m sort of a bitch on my worst days, and a fucking bitch on the days when I’m not. I’m not really rich people’s kind of girl next door. I’m more of a beer in one hand and a gun in the other kind of girl. And usually pointing the gun at the man who’s trying to feel me up.”

“Jules didn’t try to feel you up?” The words spilled from her mouth before she
could think them out. “Good heavens, that didn’t come out right. What I meant was that I can’t believe that other men would…. Well shit, Lenny, that’s exactly what I meant. He’s been somewhat of a loner most of his life, and his first date was a set up made by one of his brothers. I suppose he had a good time…Jules, not his brother. Brock could and did have fun no matter what he was doing. Keith will continue to have no fun unless there’s something electrical in front of him. The others have settled down, but I do worry over them. All of them. But Jules, he’s the one that I worried about the most.”

“
There’s nothing wrong with any of your sons, Sandra. They are all very…manly.” Sandra burst out laughing. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded either.”

“Yes you did
, and you know it.” Sandra laughed again. “They are good boys, the best I would have to say, but they do love their mates. Keith will be next, I suppose, but I’m almost afraid to see what she’ll be like. The women are getting stronger as they each find their mates.”

“I’m not his mate. He’ll find someone else.
He’ll be much happier with someone else.” Sandra saw Jules striding toward them and had to smile. “What happens now will be better for all of you.”

“I
highly doubt that.” Sandra stood up when Jules spoke. He didn’t sound any happier than she’d been with Ryland when he’d told her what he’d done to his brother. “Mother, I’d like a word in private with Lenny, please.”

“I have nothing to say to you. What are you doing here anyway?
Shouldn’t you be off sulking somewhere about how I wouldn’t mind you? If you want to start listing all the things I did wrong, then you are going to have to toss the fucking thing away. I don’t want to hear them. I’ve had enough of you, thanks.”

“I love you.”
Lenny sat down, and so did Sandra. That she hadn’t expected. Before she could move out of the chair to leave, Jules continued. “I’ve been a fool. A major one at that. I only wanted what I wanted, and didn’t care about or even concern myself with what your needs or wants were.”

“If you’re hoping to get an argument from me
, you are waiting in vain. I think that you might have left out a few descriptive words I would have used to describe you. You forgot ‘bossy’ and ‘pig-headed.’ Then there’s ‘jackass’ and ‘know-it-all’. Oh, and let’s not forget—”

The kiss shut her up.
Sandra watched them for several seconds before she thought to leave. As she moved out of the backyard and into the house, she tried to think who to call first. Rayne had set this whole thing up, but Keith had found out all the information when no one else had. Sandra thought of calling Ryland, too, to ask him to reinstate his brother’s name in the streak, but then she wondered if that, too, had been a ploy. It seemed her family was playing matchmaker better than she was. She sat down at the table and nearly screamed when Peter and Viktor were suddenly in front of her.